Artist Statement

Marianne Watchel was born in rural Saskatchewan and studied painting at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. In the early 1980's she began painting full time. She attended the Emma Lake Artist Workshops in 1983, 1987 and 1988. Her work is in many private and corporate collections in Canada, the United States and Australia.

"Years ago, I would refer to myself as a landscape painter and my work would have easily been recognized as such. I am still influenced by the landscape and readily use the horizon line as a starting point. My definition of the landscape has been shaped by my time spent in the bush of northern Saskatchewan and Alberta every year and viewing the land by helicopter. I have found that distance often determines the recognition of objects.

Often my paintings rely on “the incident.” By this I mean when viewing the work the eye is directed through a series of stops or pauses and then drawn on as it moves within the picture. The hope is that this can be done while still experiencing the piece as a whole. I’ve always been interested in pictorial tension and testing how far something can be pushed in a painting before it loses any sense of order.

The order I refer to is not the unfeeling placement or clever juxtaposition of elements in a painting to achieve easy resolution but instead hope the order comes through a kind of reconciliation that I have come to as I work. Imposed solution are sacrificed to intuition forged over years of engagement and the necessity of that particular painting demanding that specific response. I paint in the hope making something that I and others can take pleasure in looking at and responding to. " - Marianne Watchel

All images are property of the artist. The copying of images is prohibited except by permission of the gallery.